Total Health Care centers in Pakistan are approximately 13,937 in which we have approximately 103,708 beds. Moreover we have approximately 4,813 dispensaries in Pakistan where total number of beds are approximately 2,845. Rural health centers in Pakistan are approximately 572 in which we have approximately 9,612 beds. Private sector hospitals are present in a very large number but due to their high prices many people cannot afford them. Health sector is also becoming a business now a days. Welfare hospitals are also working in support of health department but their capacity is also not so large Whenever we think crises in health sector we ultimately think that we do not have enough doctors in our country but up to astonishment a large number of doctors and paramedic staff is unemployed in Pakistan.
Jobless doctors are not giving hope to young generation in following this profession whereas conditions of our hospitals are also not satisfying. We have very less hospitals as compare to our need. Illiteracy in rural areas is also one of the major cause as they cannot track their health. Governments have also taken steps to improve health sector like Rescue 1122 by PMLQ, building of new hospitals by PMLN, development of hospitals by PTI but still this department requires more attention. Our capacity of hospitals is very less as compare to our total population which is approximately 21 crore. Moreover, health facilities like MRI X-rays, Ventilators, operation equipment, ultrasound machines etc. in our hospitals are also very less and not up to the mark regarding their working.
The health sector in Pakistan is covered all around with huge and different problems. There are many problems including lack of health facilities in rural areas, unemployed doctors, the actual shortage of trained medical staff in all over the country etc. The inability of medical graduates to work in the rural areas setting and their dependence on technology of pharmaceutical companies improves themselves at the price of the common man.
This list of problems in our health sector is so vast and the basic fact is that the most of people cannot optimize the facility of the health and as a result face so many diseases.
It is our fault that the health sector is most of times connected with the political sector, economic sector and social sector. We argue that only leaders are responsible for the lack of the facilities in the rural areas but one of the main reason for health crises in rural areas is the unwillingness of doctors to practice in these areas.
Health of a population serves to an important sign of its growth and stability of a nation. According to the world development report Pakistan lies in lower middle income countries with GDP growth rate 5.2 percent.
The increasing rate of health issues in Pakistan is alarming. These health issues are new kind of diseases that are difficult to treat because of the lack of money and economic conditions. Pakistan is currently ranking 122 out of 190 countries in terms of health care according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite significant improvements over the decades, Pakistan has a third-highest rate in the world when it comes to infant mortality.
In Pakistan more than 50 million people are living below the line of poverty. These people cannot meet their basic needs because of less money and poor health sector. Due to the poverty the children cannot grow up with proper facilities and they are attacked by so much infection and health problem. The children living in the urban areas have much more facilities than the children growing in rural areas and that’s why growth of the children living in the urban area is so much good than that’s the children living in the rural areas.
The government has not made the health care first concern for the people living in Pakistan as compared to other countries in the world. The people living in other countries have so much facilities of health. Local hospitals in the villages etc. do not have much facilities like the hospitals in the big cites in Pakistan. Here the point to be consider is that even our big hospitals are not having much facilities but the conditions of rural areas is even worst.
There are some welfare hospitals too in our country and they treat poor peoples for free but they cannot treat large numbers of people because of the shortage of the facilities and the technology in the hospitals.
Major problem faced by our doctors is that if the patient need surgical treatment from local hospital (as there are many facilities which can be attained only from certain hospitals) they have to wait for long time and as a result so many deaths occur. If the patient needs an emergency treatment there is shortage of doctors or instruments or staff that can handle that patient so they refers to the other hospital in such case mostly patients cannot wait and cannot bear travelling as a result they die.
In our urban areas we have hospitals but their number is far less than the hospitals required by the population of that respective city. And the point to be considered over here is that these hospitals have to meet the need for rural areas too as people of rural areas do not have required facilities in their respective areas. There is shortage of medical staff and equipment’s in our hospitals. If we ever visit government hospitals we can see people lying on floor and corridors as there is shortage of beds too. One thing more to be considered it there is no proper cleaning in hospitals which makes hospitals a great place of infections. There are private hospitals which are providing required facilities to people but their cost is out of approach for majority of our population as Pakistan has a large percentage of poverty.
On the other hand the people living in the rural areas are not aware of majority of diseases due to which they cannot get treatment on time and the diseases gets worse and the patient dies. They cannot recognize the disease by its symptoms and in this way illiteracy in rural areas is also one of the major causes of diseases over there. Moreover, due to lack of facilities it becomes difficult for patient to rec over. There are so many diseases that are widely spreading in Pakistan and the people living in the rural communities are mostly suffering from them. Astonishing fact is that many of them do not even know that they are ill. The main reason is lack of awareness and money. Over here not only government is to be blamed but doctors are also to be blamed, despite of more salary packages for doctors working in rural areas majority of doctors do not like to work in rural areas because everyone wants a luxurious life. Doctors are also thinking about their own lives only.
Some of the very common diseases in Pakistan are:
- Malaria Tuberculosis Dengue Fever
- Cancer Stoke Diabetes
- Hepatitis Ischemic Heart disease HIV/AIDS
- Hepatitis Maternal and child health Asthma
- Mental health COVID 19 Hypertension
- Diarrhea Blood pressure Acute respiratory infection
One would think that, given the poor health -status of the population and the poor distribution of facilities, a feature like unemployment of doctors would be quite unheard in Pakistan. But this is not the case. At present, government sources themselves admit that more than 11,000 doctors are unemployed in the country. The country is facing this unemployment, while, on the other, the infant-mortality rate is 125 per thousand and the doctor-population ratio in rural Sind is 57,964. The crisis of the unemployed of doctors has been brewing for a number of years and now it has exploded. Given the policy of successive governments towards health care, this crisis should have been anticipated. Governments have been obsessed with the city -based curative-care approach and have accordingly built medical schools to provide for the main pillar of the system, the doctor.
This one-sided approach to health care has backfired: in the absence of a medical infrastructure to absorb the entire output of medical schools, the doctors have ended up without jobs. If a more balanced approach has been followed, and more facilities have been provided in accordance with the distribution of population, the doctors could have been able to find jobs, and some could have even considered moving out of the larger cities. Problem to be considered is that government is focusing on building more and more private medical colleges but hospitals are very less. To- day, the situation is indeed ironic and deplorable in that, despite the shortage of doctors in the country’s hospitals, the government has advised the unemployed doctors to seek employment in the Middle East that’s also one of the reasons why the unemployment in Pakistan is raising day by day and the condition of health section are getting worse day by day.
Pakistan have fails to improve in the health sector since its independence and progress of public health sector in the country may be evaluated to refer to the health conditions in the pre partition era in 1947.
Environmental sanitation in Pakistan is at low level and there are inadequate health sector services. Post partition era explains the subcontinents miseries and suffering further regarding the health sector as health facilities were never enough in sub-continent. In this way we can say that Pakistan Inherited multifaceted problems like lack of medical staff, medicines, vaccines and sera.
The proportion of population which has access to improved drinking water and sanitation is 91% (2015) and 64% (15) respectively.
PMLN took some steps to increase health sector in Pakistan. Prime Minister’s National Health Program (PMNHP) was launched on December 31, 2015. It was a state-run health insurance program. The initiative was taken by ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. The main aim of the program is to benefit the Pakistani citizens living under the line of poverty. Federal Health Minister was appointed to monitor the process. Initially, the program covered 15 districts of the Punjab, Baluchistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Islamabad as well. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governments declined to become part of this scheme.
The free-of-cost treatment was offered for cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Burma and RTA (life and limb saving treatment, implants, prosthesis). It also includes treatment of end-stage renal diseases and dialysis, chronic infections (Hepatitis), organ failure (Hepatic, Renal, Cardiopulmonary) and cancer treatment (Chemo, Radio and Surgery).Until now 3227113 have been enrolled in this program. Furthermore, on January 3, 2018, the program was extended to 38 districts including the Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir along with others.
Pervaiz Elahi of PMLQ must be given highest credit for the advancement of health sector in Pakistan because off the development of Rescue 1122. In more advanced developing countries, establishing ambulance transport systems is more feasible, but still requires considerable expertise and planning. Prior to 2004, Pakistan did not have an organized emergency medical system. In that year, Rescue 1122 was launched as a professional pre-hospital emergency service, and it has managed to achieve an average response time of 7 minutes, comparable to that of developed nations. Some of the critical factors in its success included local manufacture of vehicles, training instructors to certify emergency medical technicians, adopting training materials to the local context, and branching out to include fire and rescue service response under a united command structure. It is the biggest milestone achieved towards a good health sector in Pakistan ever.
PTI has recently came in power in 2018. They are considering health department and working for its progress. Proof over here is 28,000 fresh recruit¬ments for hospitals and basic health units and issuance of health cards to 50 thou¬sand people across the province. In Attack, Mother and Child Hospital will be built over an area of 72 canals at the cost of over Rs4 billion. They are working to make especially 98% basic health units had qualified doctors, paramedics and medi-cines.240 hospitals in Pakistan have been taken on board when the PTI government distributed Sehat Insaf cards to people but all these hospitals are private.
Medical and Dental Colleges, Training Institutions, Nursing Schools, Public Health Schools and public health institutions are not very well equipped and staffed according to requirements and medical graduates are needed to be sent for services in rural areas for a period of one year. Although concept of medical education is properly launched in all over the Pakistan but the orientation of the graduates is required to enhance their ability and serve their home land. There is lack of interest and orientation in the field of medical research, which is posing a great challenge for the scholars who are concerned to create an impetus for the researchers to keep pace with the developing world. Although research is an important in factor in all the education system in Pakistan in all the medical universities in Pakistan which need to be addressed. Since research is also an important factor in post graduate level but the quality of teaching of the students in writing in medical field is also a huge challenge in Pakistan.
Pakistan is in transitional phase of health problems particularly, HIV/ AIDS, dengue fever, bird flu, SARS and drug resistance cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are on increase. The prevalence of such diseases is to be addressed at resource allocation level. Similarly, resources are needed to be allocated equitably to combat this challenge by adopting preventive measures, thereof. Emerging non-communicable diseases. Non communicable diseases like CHD, Diabetes, Hypertension, Cancer, Accidents and Mental illness have emerged as a threat owing to change in lifestyle of the community. Multi-faceted challenges in this scenario are posing a great threat to the community which needs to be addressed to improve the physical quality of life of the citizens. In health planning, non-communicable diseases are to be addressed appropriately by establishing diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic centers.
The government should apply the basic rule to the health sector to avoid the death in rural areas and also aware the people of rural area about the health issue and also provide them with best facilities for proper growth and for good health. Government should invest a handsome amount of budget on health and research sector so that we can make new hospitals in our rural areas and increase facilities in our hospitals of urban areas. As the hospitals are over loaded with the patients and need much more facilities. Moreover, doctors should also come forward in this regard and how their willingness to even work in rural areas. Our health sector is destroyed a lot and it cannot become accurate in a day or two but if we work with consistency and show our interests in the development of our health sector we will ultimately reach our goal as slow and steady wins the race.
